Btselem /10 March 2024

I’m a merchant. Four of my children are under the age of 18. On 28 August 2023, around 3:30 A.M., army and Shin Bet forces came and broke into our house. They were looking for my son Ahmad, 19, who they claimed was wanted by the Shin Bet. Ahmad wasn’t home. He was in Jenin. The soldiers broke everything in the house and arrested me and two of my sons: ‘Alaa, 23, and Wajih, 29. My son Wajdi, 24, was arrested by the army a month earlier. They came to our house looking for Ahmad that time too, saying he was wanted, and when they didn’t find him, they arrested Wajdi.

The soldiers and Shin Bet men humiliated me and my sons, swore at us and threatened us. They took us to the detention facility at Etzion prison, south of Bethlehem, and kept us there for nine days. ‘Alaa and I were in the same cell, and they separated Wajih from us. He was released after a few days. Conditions in Ezion were particularly harsh, because it’s military not Shin Bet.

On 7 October 2023, the prison administration came and told us it was forbidden to give medical treatment to “security” prisoners, except ones who had diabetes or high blood pressure. And really, no one got treatment

They wanted me to turn in my son and offered to release me in exchange. I refused, of course. I didn’t know exactly where he was, anyway. On 8 October, my son was killed by the army in Jenin, but they still kept us in detention.

Then they transferred ‘Alaa and me to Ofer Prison, with our hands and feet tied. When we arrived at Ofer, they first put us in the waiting room, a very small reinforced concrete detention cell with nothing in it. Then they put us in Cell No. 9 in Wing 26.

We had with us in our cell Muhammad a-Sabbar, 23, from a-Dhahiriyah, Hebron District. He had intestinal disease since childhood and needed medical attention and special food, with lots of fluids. We tried to help him as much as we could. We bought him food in the canteen and cooked for him. But as soon as the war started and conditions changed, he suffered a lot.

At first, the situation was normal. It’s prison of course, and you’re an inmate, but you still feel you have rights. That’s how it was until the war broke out on 7 October 2023. Then the prison administration came and told us it was forbidden to give medical treatment to “security” prisoners, except ones who had diabetes or high blood pressure. And really, no one got treatment. When we complained about medical problems, they would just say “drink water,” or give an Acamol (OTC pain killer). No other drugs were given.

on 7 October 2023. Then the prison administration came and told us it was forbidden to give medical treatment to “security” prisoners, except ones who had diabetes or high blood pressure. And really, no one got treatment

All that started the suffering of the prisoner Muhammad a-Sabbar. The food they gave us was all dry, with nothing to soften it. Most of what they did bring was grains, which he wasn’t allowed to eat because they caused him intestinal bloating. Every day I would talk to the officer, explaining that Muhammad needed to be taken to the hospital. The first stage was severe constipation; he didn’t pass stool for 12 days. I spoke with the prison administration and asked them to bring an enema to help him eliminate the waste. After many requests, they brought him an enema. After we solved that problem, we started dealing with his diet, as much as we could with the little food we had. Every quarter of an hour, I gave him a small piece of bread and yogurt. We tried to control his health so that it wouldn’t deteriorate too much because of the food.

It was already forbidden to cook anything, and buying from the canteen was not allowed. Besides prohibiting purchases from the canteen, they limited the amount of food, so much that it dropped to 20% of the usual amount before the war. There were eight of us in the cell, and we got a meal that wasn’t enough for one. Most of the prisoners had lost a lot of weight by the time they were released.

At that stage, Muhammad had memory loss and vision problems. He didn’t even know how long he’d been in prison. What he needed was a professional nurse and hospital care, because what he needed wasn’t available in the prison. His stomach was always bloated.

The guards started taking all of our clothes away and didn’t leave us even one set of clothes to change into. They took the towels and pillows away, too, and some of the blankets, leaving only one blanket for each prisoner. They even took our cleaning supplies. They also confiscated all electrical appliances, including the TV and hotplate, and even the medications. They removed the glass windowpanes and left only the bars, so we’d be cold.

Everyone had one set of clothes, a towel and a blanket. The blankets were short. There was no shampoo or cleaning detergent. If they saw us wearing two shirts, they took one. If you wanted to wash your clothes, they’d barely get dry because it was cold and there was no sun. They took out the windows and it was really cold.

They canceled yard time. Calling for prayers was forbidden. Of course, they confiscated the Qurans. Even group prayer in the cells was forbidden. If the guards heard the Quran being read out in a cell, they would punish all the inmates in it.

And there were also roll calls. Until the war, when they did roll call, they’d call out a prisoner’s name, they’d have to stand up, and that’s it. After the war it changed completely. They added more roll calls during the day. They would come into the cell and then the humiliation would start.

Aside from Muhammad, we had two other sick prisoners in our cell: One had a neurological disease and the other was mentally ill.

During roll call, we all had to crowd at the far end of the cell, kneel or lie down on the ground, and strip. Then they’d search us, tell us to get dressed, take us out of the cell, usually to the shower, and search the cell. The whole thing took a few hours. One time, they sent us to another cell and left us there for three days, 18 prisoners, without mattresses. We felt that the message was - die for all we care.

Every few days the guards or members of a special unit would come in and do a search. Like during roll call, we had to kneel and keep our head down. They usually came in with a dog.

On the 40-day anniversary of my son Ahmad’s death, I recited Quran verses in his memory out loud. Just then, people from a special unit came into our cell with dogs. They handcuffed us and beat us all

On the 40-day anniversary of my son Ahmad’s death, I recited Quran verses in his memory out loud. Just then, people from a special unit came into our cell with dogs. They handcuffed us and beat us all [the witness cries]. The dogs had a muzzle, so they couldn’t bite, but they were trained to attack with this muzzle. One of the dogs pounced on me when I was handcuffed and hit me in the face with his muzzle. The dog scratched me in the face, ear and shoulder. We were all attacked like that for no reason. They even attacked Muhammad a-Sabbar that day. Then they took us out of the room, did a search and then brought us back. We didn’t get any medical treatment after that.

Every move from place to place also involved severe humiliation - keeping your head down, walking in absolute silence, if you say a word you get beaten badly. They didn’t care if you were old. Everyone was the same to them.

Transition from prison to prison was also a real disaster. If you knew you were going to be transferred, you knew you were going to go through some hard stuff. You leave with nothing, only the clothes you’re wearing. You get beaten up all the way, humiliated. They put handcuffs on you and tighten them very tightly and you stay with them like that for hours. Then they take you to the posta (prisoner transport vehicle) and on the way there, they push your head down. Then inside the posta, non-stop beatings.

On 14 December 2023, I was transferred to Nafha Prison. The situation there was even worse than Ofer. When I got there, they took all my clothes except my shirt and gave me prison pants. They took my shoes too and gave me slides. I was put in Cell 18 in Ward 1. Khaled a-Shawish, another sick prisoner who died in prison later, was there too. He was paralyzed and suffered a lot because he didn’t get any treatment and he had bedsores. I stayed there until I was released in January, on 31 January 2024, after about five months in administrative detention. After I was released, I found out that Muhammad a-Sabbar died in prison. Everyone in prison just dreams of being released and going back to their family, but he didn’t get released and didn’t go back.

* Testimony collected by B’Tselem field researcher Basel al-Adrah on 10 March 2024